Gathered Monday in the library of the school that has welcomed them, a group of teenagers whose families fled persecution and war in their native countries decried Trump administration actions they say betray American values they hold dear.

The students at Denver’s South High School joined top district officials to share with the media their experiences and their opinions on Trump’s executive order that banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries and temporarily suspended the U.S. refugee program.

“A lot of my Somali friends, their siblings are overseas and they can’t come and reunite with their family, all because of one order,” said Sadia Mohammed, an 18-year-old senior whose parents are from Somalia and who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 2009. “It’s breaking up families.”

The event at South also spotlighted Denver Public Schools’ stepped-up efforts to educate refugee and other students whose schooling has been interrupted, in some cases because they spent time in refugee camps where educational opportunities were limited.

South High is home to one of six DPS “newcomer centers.” The model, which the district adopted several years ago and has continually expanded, calls for students to spend a semester or two in a self-contained newcomer classroom and then transition to a more mainstream program for English language learners.

The centers also foster a diversity that the students in the library — which included American-born teens along with immigrants and refugees from countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea — said they prize.

“Even if you are a minority student or a student who’s being targeted by politicians or told you don’t have a right to be here, we want you here at South,” said senior Cherokee Ronolo-Valdez, who was born and raised in Denver. “We want you to feel supported. We’re all human.”

Many of the students said they feel Trump’s order sends the opposite message.

Senate Democrats are moving on two fronts to block President Donald Trump from using special emergency powers to transfer money from military base construction projects like new schools to pay for new fences along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said his agency likely violated its scientific integrity rules last week when it publicly chastised a weather office that contradicted President Donald Trump's claim that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama.